Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

Wintertime is a great time to go through all of your outdoor gear and give it a good cleaning and lube job, if needed. (Journal photo by Larry Myhre)

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

If there was one thing I taught my grandson about the outdoors it was, “Take care of your equipment and your equipment will take care of you.”

And while making sure all of your outdoor stuff is in good shape is a year around job, wintertime is when you can really focus on what needs to be done.

I usually begin with my guns. We don’t clean guns much nowadays, thanks to smokeless powder so chances are your rifle or shotgun has not seen a cleaning rod in quite some time.

Rifles, big game rifles especially, are prone to copper fowling in the grooves of the rifling. Now is a good time to run some solvent such as Hoppes No. 9 through the barrel.

Wipe the metal parts down with a rag moist with gun oil, don’t use too much, and then take a clean rag and wipe down the stock and perhaps put a coat of paste wax on it. Check out the scope and if the lenses need cleaning, use an approved lens cleaning fluid and a lint free rag. I like to blow the glass with compressed air to remove any grains of sand or dirt, then wipe the glass down with a soft brush before using the cleaning fluid to prevent scratches.

Shotguns can see some heavy and dirty use in the duck or goose blinds or out in the field for pheasants and grouse. I’ll clean the barrel with a copper brush and some solvent to remove any leading and then run a rag through. I like to use Gun Scrubber and blow out all the dirt and grease from the trigger assembly and bolt and then lightly oil the moving parts.

If you are using your gun in sub freezing temperatures, take it easy with the oil or use powdered graphite. Too much oil can cause your gun to freeze up in the cold.

I’ll also go through all my hunting clothing, cleaning out the pockets, and washing the garment if necessary.

Boots get cleaned and the leather oiled. Other things like calls, game carriers, etc., get looked over as well.

Fishing equipment gets the same treatment. I wipe down all my rods with a damp cloth and make sure they are clean. The cork or foam handles get scrubbed with soap and water and wiped down with a towel.

I’ll usually put a coat of wax on the rod (not on the cork or foam handle). This will protect the blank and make it easier to keep clean.

All reels get checked to make sure they are functioning properly. I wipe them down using a rag dampened with WD 40 and clean them well. Then I oil them according to the manufacturers directions.

Lines, especially monofilament, gets replaced at this time. Braids or superlines will last almost forever so you don’t need to pay much attention to them unless you add more line. On reels filled with superline, I have monofilament backing. Instead of changing the line when it gets lower on the spool than it should, I tie on a piece of mono backing and reel to fill the spool, then I take that short piece of backing off, spool out the super line, tie the new backing to the old, reverse the super line and tie it to the backing. That provides fresh line to the front. Tackle boxes, lures, jigs and everything else gets wiped down and cleaned up as well.

If you are complaining about nothing to do during these cold winter days, I’d advise you to start taking care of your equipment. Then next spring, it will take care of you.